More than 100 Million of World’s Poorest Benefit from Microcredit
January 26, 2009
More than 106 million of the world’s poorest families received a microloan in 2007, surpassing a goal set ten years earlier, according to a report released today by the Microcredit Summit Campaign. Microloans are used to help people living in extreme poverty start or expand a range of tiny businesses such as husking rice, selling tortillas, and delivering cell phone services to remote villages.
Microcredit Summit Campaign to Expand Efforts to Document Success of Microfinance
January 09, 2009
A $700,000 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will fund program to document how microfinance recipients rise above extreme poverty.
Microfinance Leaders See Trouble Ahead for Institutions and Clients
October 24, 2008
For years, microfinance has made quiet but significant headway in helping people pull themselves out of poverty with dignity. The practice of making small loans to the world’s poorest and most marginalized people — often women in developing countries — to start their own small businesses and provide for their families has succeeded in spite of conventional banking wisdom, and benefited millions of families worldwide.
